CCH
The best summary of this CCH Canadian Limited can be found in their "Special 60th Anniversary Commemorative Issue" newsletter "Special 60th Anniversary Commemorative Issue" http://www.cch.ca/_resources/pdf/cchdocument/CCH_60th_Newsletter.pdf . CCH, 2006. Retrieved October 22, 2013.. An extract of that newsletter is reproduced below: CCH Canadian Limited can trace its origins back to 1931 when, as the Kingsland Company, it was responsible for numerous insurance and legal publications. It was responsible for the Insurance Law Reporter, Dominion Report Service, Dominion and Quebec Legislation Services and Canadian insurance Case Law. In 1939, the Kingsland Company became the exclusive distributor in Canada for Commerce Clearing House Inc.’s loose leaf publication Canadian Tax Reports in 3 volumes, just commencing publication at the request of CCH’s U.S. customers who conducted business in Canada and required Canadian tax law information CCH moves to Don Mills… In 1960, CCH Canadian Limited purchased five acres of land in Don Mills where a new, modern plant and office would be built at 6 Garamond Court. The original floor area of this building was 39,000 sq. ft. (at a cost of $15 per sq. ft.!) and the building was completed in 1961. During the expansive years of the sixties more and more new publications such as the Canadian Securities Law Reporter (CSL), and the Canadian Employment Benefits and Pension Guide (CPEN) spelled further substantial growth for the company. By 1968 this new plant had already run out of storage space and another area of 20,000 square feet had to be added. In June 1968, CCH Australia was organized by Mr. Vincent to edit, produce and distribute loose leaf reporters on Australian law. Preparation of initial copy for Australian publication was done at CCH in Canada and Australian staff spent considerable time learning the business in Don Mills before they commenced operations in Australia full tilt. Mr. Vincent retired at the end of 1968 and J.W. “Jack” Kirk became CCH’s third President. Product growth continued with CCH purchasing competing publications such as Industrial Relations & Personnel Developments (IRPD) and Canadian Government Programs and Services (CGOV). Other in-house publications were also added such as Ontario Real Estate Law Guide (OREG) and British Columbia Corporations Law Guide (BCLG). By 1978 the number of loose leaf reporters and newsletters published exceeded 30, book titles over 50 and employees and sales territories continued to grow until another 11,000 sq. ft. expansion to the building was necessary in 1979. CCH Acquires Formules Municipales Ltée.. In 1979, CCH Canadian acquired Formules Municipales Ltée (FM), a Quebec based company which had been supplying forms and stationery requirements of the municipalities and school boards of Quebec since 1886. Mr. Kirk retired in 1980 and, Ken Lata became the fourth CCH Canadian President in 1981. Even through such economic upheavals as the 1981 recession and the 1987 market crash, CCH went from $13 million in revenue in 1980 to $35 million in 1989, and the revenue earned at “FM” reached $6.5 million as compared to $1.3 million in 1980.The number of publication rose from 33 in 1980 to 66 and from 1 to 15 in 1989 for “FM”. “FM” (renamed Publications CCH Ltée in 1996) was on the way to becoming one of the largest publishers of legislative information outside the Quebec government, producing many original French language products and reporting on Quebec provincial laws and regulations which are based on French Civil Law. Again, the Garamond building was expanded with another 20,000 sq. ft. being added in 1985 – the fourth expansion since 1961 – to accommodate the growing PC environment. During the eighties CCH was slowly converting its hot metal pages to electronic so that computeraided typesetting could be achieved. Previously all of the information accumulated over the course of CCH history was in the form of lead slugs packed away in rack upon rack of metal containers. By the end of 1988, CCH had terminated its hot lead operations. It wasn’t until 1985 that the first personal computer arrived in the editorial department and not until 1990 that every editor was equipped with a PC and hooked to the VAX. The new technology moved CCH away from the traditional print-shop driven production to an editorially driven one. Ken Lata had retired in December 1989 and John Pineo became CCH Canadian’s fifth President in 1990. CCH goes electronic... In the early 1990’s, after many years of development work, CCH began offering its tax products in an electronic platform and in 1991 conversion to SGML (standardized general mark-up language) allowed CCH to produce both print and electronic products from one master file. The first electronic product offered was the Canadian Master Tax Guide on Disk in March, 1991. In November, the first of the ITA Series using FolioView software was released and, by the end of the year, an electronic copy of the book containing both law and commentary on the GST was available. In 1992 DTC and DOF commentary went electronic and the CCH electronics product line had been born. CCH Canadian rapidly adapted to the new technologies of the 1990’s and was well ahead of the competition. By 1996 CCH was concentrating all its efforts on increasing the family of electronic products by completing the Tax Line and by expanding rapidly in the Legal and Human Resources areas. Besides “going electronic”, the nineties brought many other changes to CCH Canadian – a new logo (the “helmet”) was launched in 1994 – the first logo change since 1927; an order management system was created (COMIT in 1997); a new mission to “become the Global knowledge Provider” and a new tag line “Now You Know!” were launched. New products – both paper and electronic – like PaySource and the Practitioner’s Suite - were created and electronic versions of GST and PROV were launched in late 1995. Even newsletters got a new look by going to the present format of 8 ½ X 11! And, in December, 1995, CCH Canadian celebrated its 50th Anniversary. The Wolters Kluwer Era... Of course the biggest change for CCH was the purchase of CCH Incorporated by Wolters Kluwer, the Dutch publishing company on November 27, 1995. Wolters Kluwer had been seeking to further develop its presence in North America and by purchasing CCH incorporated, with all its international subsidiaries, including CCH Canadian Limited, it was able to do so. Wolters Kluwer’s core publishing markets include: legal, tax and business, health, science, and education, in 26 countries, as well as North America. It has over 19,000 employees worldwide. CCH Incorporated had, for many years, been owned by one family -- the Thorne family – who had a majority of the shares. The family sold the company to Wolters Kluwer and as of January 1, 1996, CCH Incorporated became a wholly owned subsidiary of Wolters Kluwer NV (Amsterdam). With the purchase by Wolters Kluwer, CCH was on the move again, this time to the present location at 90 Sheppard Ave. East in Toronto in January, 1997 where a 10-year lease was signed. The Garamond Court building was sold and the print production side of the business had been moved temporarily to rented facilities in Aurora. References